April 14, 2017

The automotive weapon

I have to admit I'm surprised that it took this long for jihadis to start using cars and trucks as their weapons of choice.

As a matter of physics, getting hit by a bullet is far less lethal than being hit by a Mack truck. Unless it hits something vital, the bullet is quite survivable; a truck moving at any appreciable speed? Not so much.

After the latest atrocity, there are now people calling for "car control," which makes perfect sense, given the prevalence of a particular worldview.

If you think that it's possible to make the earth less violent simply by hiding all the sharp and heavy objects, putting rigorous controls on automobile ownership might seem like a viable policy.

But back in the real world, it should be clear that the tools are less important than the evil that animates them.

There are parts of my state where one can leave a luxury car unlocked with the keys in the ignition overnight and it will be there the next morning. There are other parts where people with steal the car at gunpoint as soon as you enter their territory.

The problem is the people, not the stuff they use. Take away one thing and they'll use another. Prisons are famously restrictive, yet weapons are found there all the time. All that's needed is the time and motivation to get them.

Was it only a year ago that our ex-president was wondering aloud why massacres only happen in the US? Funny, now they're a regular even in Europe. Oddly, the means vary but the perpetrators are remarkably similar.

It's like there's something besides just routine criminality at work.

Sometimes the attackers should slogans as they go about their grisly deeds, but law enforcement tells us that the real motive can never been known.